Thank you to Gareth Evans for putting together another 50 pages issue of Blue Light with a lot to read. It is the Winter 2023/2024 issue or (Volume 30:3).
It has three major articles contributed by Danny Caine, Roger Boyes and Gareth himself. They are framed in a kind of timeline and content multi structure.
Timewise, one is on the 1920’s, another is focused 0n the 1940’s and a third one on the 1950’s and beyond. Contentwise, one is about a film (and more), another is about a recording period and a third one on Ellington’s relationnship to a period of jazz.
Let’s start with Danny Caine’s article about Black and Tan – Dudley Murphy‘s classic jazz film from 1929.
The title of the article is Shades of Gray, which in a sense captures the mood of the film. In the final scene when Fredi Washington is dying, in the close-up shot of Ellington’s face the color is grey. And in the comment to the scene where Washington has collapsed on the stage, Danny wonders, “could it be coincidental that Fredi’s boss is a grey?” The film is after all conceived on the theme black and white!
It is an extremely well written article with many perspectives intertwined in a fascinating way .
Is it primarily about Black and Tan – the film or the emergence of a cultural and media industry which had a place also for black artists but a place which where in the hands of white men. In the article, Caine quotes from Harold Cruse, “Negro entertainment posed such an ominous threat to the white cultural ego, the staid Western standards of art, cultural values and aesthic integrity that the entire source had to be stringently controlled.”
It is of course both but for me the film is at the center. Caine see sit as a triptych like Black and Tan Fantasy itself and describes it in those terms. “Two natural “scenes” flank a choreographed night at an all Negro revue”.
Anyhow, watch the film between reads of Caine’s article and some of his references. This is the best way to get the most of the article.
Roger Boyes provides another part in his absolutely invaluable Ellington in the 1940’s series! This time he writes about the spring of 1945 (April and May) and The Treasury Broadcasts. “A consideration of their origins and content is the central theme of the article”, says Roger. “The content of the Treasury Shows gives the clear and rounded picture of the music the Ellingtonian’s were actually performing in 1945.” In addition to the Treasury Shows, Roger also briefly deals with the Victor recordings of the period. He also writes about the half-hour program that Ellington broadcasted on the day – Saturday 14 April, 1945 – when President Roosevelt was buried.
After his Duke/Dylan triptych in the three previous issues of Blue Light, Gareth “turns his attention to Ellington’s musical flirtation with bebop in the last half of his career.” Did Ellington embrace bebop and be influenced by it? ”
Gareth’s question for the article is: Biographers will produce a narrative of Duke’s musical career with scant reference to bop. “Are these commentators missing anything?”
After having discussed the issue at length in his article, Gareth’ answer is simple and straightforward: ” Ellington certainly found bop an interesting form of musical expression but it was even under its boom years an idiom that he would keep at an arm’s, making occasional connections to enrich his own unique musical palette.
Gareth covers a wide territory before arriving at this conclusion. I recommend the Blue Light readers to read what he has written. It would take too much space here to go through it.
The new issue of Blue Light has as usual also an interesting article by Fred Glueckstein. This time it is about the friendship between Duke Ellington and Joe Louis.
It also pays tribute to longtime DESUK chairman Peter Caswell (23 October 1940-28October 2023) and remembers Steve Voce (23 December 1933-23 November 2023).
Author: Ulf Lundin